Writing a (Poetic) God while Disbelieving

December 20, 2017

This isn’t a new concept. Epic poetry has been calling to gods and muses for centuries. However, the nuance is in a lack of spiritual power attached to that character. The Poetic God is a trope to which I address my existential idiosyncrasies. This God exists only in my writing as a thematic apostrophe linked to all the other poems that address a god. For someone that believes in a higher power, my lines may resonate for them as a genuinely religious exhortation. I encourage that. For me, their poetry referencing a religious god becomes my Poetic God.

On Growing Up Christian & the Beginnings of Self-Harm

December 23, 2016

I guess I was about four and puking in a bucket with a fever of 105, which I heard his mother tell my mother on the phone, and Old Yeller was on. I was trying to throw up quietly because Luke’s dad would be home soon. I tasted a grape chewable. I was crying.

Thinking of You Even Though You’re Not Like Us: Holiday Cards for the Religiously Ambiguous

February 16, 2016

Some years ago my Jewish boss brought her menorah to work so she could light it at sunset (we worked late), and it was my non-Jewish colleagues who were most eager to be a part of the ceremony. When traveling in Eastern Europe, someone put candies in my shoes for St. Mikuláš Day. No one in these scenarios is forcing anyone to appropriate a holiday or belief that isn’t their own—they’re only inviting them to the experience. The offer of inclusion says to someone, this means something to me and I’d like you to be a part of it in whatever way you feel comfortable.